WASHINGTON—The Senate has turned back an effort by Kentucky Republican Rand Paul to drastically cut food stamp spending and replace the food aid program with block grants to the states. The 65-33 vote to defeat the Paul amendment was part of debate on a five-year, half-trillion-dollar farm and food bill. The Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program, or food stamps, makes up ab...

This is how the budget will be balanced? By taking away food assistance for poor children? The fact that this vote was taken illustrates the depths of moral depravity to which some politicians have sunk.

I wish the article had gone into the reasons WHY this was defeated, as some Republicans also voted against it. Although I am not against feeding the hungry, I KNOW the system is being abused, and reforms are in order.

I hope that this issue will be more thoroughly discussed and publicized in the future.

Obama is aptly referred to as the "Food stamp President" for very good reasons. Food stamp spending has exploded under his presidency and Democrat control of Congress. Food stamp recipients have increased from about 28 M under Bush to about 46M under Obama. A substantial part of the increase is due to program changes enacted under the Obama stimulus.

The food stamp program represents the growth in the structual deficit under Obama and Democrat control of Congress. The traditional entitlement programs (Social Security, Medicare, federal pensions, and Medicaid) have been augmented with a new exploding set of entitlement programs including food stamps, housing assistance (HUD and FHA are now the new subprime lenders), student assistance ($1T of student loan debt with $100B new loan debt each year along with a variety of programs to forgive student loan debt), tax welfare (IRS dispenses $100B per year in tax welfare with lots of tax welfare sent to illegal aliens), Obamacare (an enormous increase in government spending on health care), unemployment compensation (new Democrat norm of 99 weeks), Obama phones (now $1B cost), and other areas.The left has not yet got the message that government spending has reached unsustainable levels. Despite strong warnings from Greece, Argentina, and other countries, the left ignores the coming hardship from the fall of the dollar. The left (Obama's recent speech) continues to insist that the Bush tax cuts and Iraq are the cause of unsustainable government spending, contrary to any elementary analysis of the federal budget. Large reductions in government spending are coming, most likely due to the decline of the dollar. The government will still send the dollars, but the buying power will sharply diminish. The future imbalance between consumption (government spending) and production is so gigantic that the dollar will be rejected as a viable currency.

Economic gravity exists no matter the rhetoric from the left. The era of free government spending and free lunches is over. The country will be forced to live within its means.

ConservativeProf wrote:Obama is aptly referred to as the "Food stamp President" for very good reasons. Food stamp spending has exploded under his presidency and Democrat control of Congress. Food stamp recipients have increased from about 28 M under Bush to about 46M under Obama. A substantial part of the increase is due to program changes enacted under the Obama stimulus.

The food stamp program represents the growth in the structual deficit under Obama and Democrat control of Congress. The traditional entitlement programs (Social Security, Medicare, federal pensions, and Medicaid) have been augmented with a new exploding set of entitlement programs including food stamps, housing assistance (HUD and FHA are now the new subprime lenders), student assistance ($1T of student loan debt with $100B new loan debt each year along with a variety of programs to forgive student loan debt), tax welfare (IRS dispenses $100B per year in tax welfare with lots of tax welfare sent to illegal aliens), Obamacare (an enormous increase in government spending on health care), unemployment compensation (new Democrat norm of 99 weeks), Obama phones (now $1B cost), and other areas.The left has not yet got the message that government spending has reached unsustainable levels. Despite strong warnings from Greece, Argentina, and other countries, the left ignores the coming hardship from the fall of the dollar. The left (Obama's recent speech) continues to insist that the Bush tax cuts and Iraq are the cause of unsustainable government spending, contrary to any elementary analysis of the federal budget. Large reductions in government spending are coming, most likely due to the decline of the dollar. The government will still send the dollars, but the buying power will sharply diminish. The future imbalance between consumption (government spending) and production is so gigantic that the dollar will be rejected as a viable currency.

Economic gravity exists no matter the rhetoric from the left. The era of free government spending and free lunches is over. The country will be forced to live within its means.

Pure hogwash. Given the extent of poverty in America, increases in food assistance to the poor are well justified. In fact, not nearly enough is being done to aid those who are in need. For some people, both on the left and the right, caring for the poor, the elderly, and the disabled remains a moral obligation. For others, only self-interest motivates their thoughts and their actions.

The left has not yet got the message that government spending has reached unsustainable levels? I agree. It's long past time to cut military spending and eliminate corporate welfare. The right has also not gotten the message that tax cuts for the rich have reached unsustainable levels.